Doubt
by SwiftTiming
Summary: (I have no idea what I am doing so let's hope I'm doing it correctly) Reposted from my Ao3 account (Bereift)! Spoilers for the whole game of 7th Dragon III Code: VFD, but mostly chapter 6 and 7. When everything is laid bare for Unit 13 to see, will their leader choose to fight back against his fate? Or will his doubts cloud his judgement?
1. Ready, Set, Fire

They had gotten through all the obstacles that had been thrown at them. They had fought against countless dragons, and slayed five True Dragons without so much of a blink of an eye. Makoto, Kaede, and Ryou had fought tooth and nail to protect the past, present and future, only for it all to be laid in ruins now. Their friends were dead except for them and the three teams of Unit 13, with Mio and Julietta hanging on by a thread. Yuma was put down after being morphed into a being that had the first four True Dragons they fought together shoved into him, and the original data the ISDF had on Fomalhaut. He was drunk off of power from the five True Dragons in him, and was hellbent on killing them get the final data he needed to become the ultimate weapon for mankind.

That battle almost ruined Makoto. He was reluctant to even fight Yuma after everything they had been through together; from helping out in Atlantis to their silly dates around Tokyo. Makoto pleaded with Yuma to stand down before he had to level his guns at him as Yuma lunged at him first, and an all out brawl transpired. Gun shots rang out as Makoto shot at Yuma, and metal with clash against thick, dark claws as Yuma would try to land a hit on Makoto as Kaede would block his attack. Ryou was a bit at a lost, attacking from the distant with his summons to try to distract Yuma if he focused too much on one of his other teammates. The rest of the Unit had stayed behind in the Parliament building, keeping back any dragons that had flocked towards them.

As a final blow from Kaede connected with Yuma's chest, he crashed on the tiled ground blood, and skidded to a halt. Blood dripped from his mouth as he wheezed. His rib cage had been crushed by the blow that she landed, puncturing his lungs. Makoto had dropped his guns and rushed over to Yuma as he laid dying in his arms and stained his already dirty coat with blood. Yuma, while blood pooled from his mouth, wheezed as he told Makoto that he wished that they could start over and rekindle with one another without the threat of dragons over looming them. Ryou and Kaede lamented with him as Makoto placed Yuma back down onto the floor, holding back a sob while doing so. He would have time to grieve later. The rest of the Unit regrouped with them, and were shocked at the destruction of the area as their eyes rested upon where Yuma laid. They all knew what had happened and who the victors were.

Mio, in her dying breaths, directed them to where the final True Dragon was in Chidorigafuchi Park. As sorrow gripped their hearts, they rushed into the area and saw Allie – no, ND – waiting for them patiently. Her violet eyes watched them intently as they approached her, weapons already drawn. A lot of people had died for them, and others died for them to get there. Truth be told, they were all lucky to be alive and in one piece as they stood in front of the final True Dragon needed for the Dragon Chronicle, the 2nd Dragon: ND.

Allie grinned at them menacingly. She was the cause of all the disaster that had befallen them today, and had spun the wheel of humanities fate earlier than it was suppose to be spun; her Dragonsbane had littered the land in bright pink petals that reminded Makoto of the cherry blossoms that had bloomed on the trees in Tokyo recently. But unlike the blossoms, they were deadly, and had killed everyone who couldn't survive Dragon Sickness dead where they stood. None of them in Nodens knew that she was the culprit for the spread of the Dragonsbane in present time – but it all made sense now Makoto had mused to himself.

"The time for you to evolve... and become the vessel for VFD." Allie began, as she faced the blossoms, her Dragonsbane petals floating gently around her. "You shall consume the True Dragons... and lead this universe into a new plane of existence." She explained. Chuckling, the Dragonsbane petals began to whip around her as if they were in a tornado, and she chuckled. "Yes, that is how this should go. I am glad to see you have finally accepted the logical route." Some of the members of the Unit held their arms up to their faces to block the petals from hitting them, as Allie turned to face the group. Makoto gripped his guns, his nerves finally shaking him to his core. He never wanted to fight Yuma, let alone Allie. Yuma meant so much to him. Not only was he his own rival, but was someone that was much more than just a friend to him. Allie had been nothing but kind and supportive to all of them. She pushed them gently in the directions of their goals, as well as gave input into any issues they may have in their daily lives, when they weren't chasing down dragons and traveling through time.

Looking to his side, he could see as Kaede brushed her snow colored bangs from her face and behind her ears, and adjusted the gauntlets on her hands. Ryou stood on the other side, drawing a few of his cards as he prepared himself for the battle ahead. He had a frown on, and he pushed his googles up his face slightly as he rubbed his eyes with his free hand. He had been crying at some point, and Makoto could see where the tears had stained his cheeks. The rest of Unit 13 behind the first team were preparing themselves in their own ways, as Allie slowly floated into the air. Pink tendrils of energy flew freely from her back as her hands were spread palms up.

"Show me the light of life. Show me your evolution." She said. Large, pink wings sprouted her back as the petals swirled around her. "The True Dragon of creation and destruction shall finally awaken... VFD!" She declared, and a blinding light engulfed her. Makoto raised his arm to block out the light, and when he lowered it, a massive dragon, which looked more like a phoenix than anything to him, flapped its wings gently in the air above the group. He could hear Kaede gasp in surprise, and Ryou uttered a 'Wow.' under his breath. Its beak opened as it cried out to them, before swooping down to attack the group.

With weapons slicing ND's body, magical spells burning and freezing it, and bullet wounds in its wings, ND had finally fallen from the sky, and hit the ground with a loud thud. Makoto approached it with the twin swords that came from Chika and Rika's body, after Yuma had plunged his dragon claws through their bodies to receive them. The rest of the Unit surrounded the dragon with solemn looks on their faces. They all had a connection to Allie in some way or another, and this was the last thing any of them expected from her. ND cooed softly at them, and then Makoto thrust the swords into its neck. With one final shriek, it began to deteriorate back into Allie, and she laid on the grass. Her hands were place over her heart, and they fell to her sides as a piece of her dragon heart laid there for the taking.

"Take my heart, my heavenly children..." She coughed out wetly, her body slowly fading away into the petals of her Dragonsbane. Makoto placed his guns back into their holsters at his waist, as he crouched down onto one knee to take the specimen. It pulsed with life in his fingers, and he placed it into a container that Julietta had given him back when they first started hunting True Dragons. Allie's body had faded into her petals, and they drifted off in the wind that blew through the area. Makoto spaced out as he watched them drift into the distance, before the static noise in his ear snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Bring the specimen... to the R&D floor Makoto..." Julietta panted out. Pocketing the specimen into one of his empty pouches, he glanced around his team. Most of them were injured with cuts from her thorns, and a few of them had attacked each other in confusion. Those that had attacked their teammates were apologizing profusely to the others while trying to help heal them with medicine or magic. Makoto turned to see Kaede comforting Ryou, hugging him tightly with her weapons discarded on the ground a bit away from where they stood together. From where he stood, Makoto could see that Ryou's shoulders were shaking as Kaede held him, and she was rubbing small circles into his back with her fingers.

Makoto's brow furrowed. Allie had mentioned that if he became the 7th True Dragon would cause Dragons, Dragon Sickness, and Dragonsbane to disappear from existence. That peace would return to the world once more, and it would be as if Dragon's never existed. The idea of none of them existing was one that filled him with temptation to accept becoming the 7th True Dragon. But, as his eyes scanned the whole group, would they accept him becoming it to prevent all of this? To turn back time to stop all of them from suffering? To prevent all the deaths they've seen in the past eight hours? They all had fought beside him to 'defeat' the 7th True Dragon, which had turned into a ploy by Allie to turn him into the 7th True Dragon but maybe, just maybe, he could stop it. As he mulled over his thoughts, Kaede had approached him with her weapons strapped to her hip and Ryou still pulling himself together a little ways away.

"We need to head back." She stated flatly, her lip split open and several nicks on her right cheek. Ryou was in a bit worse shape than she was, and he had to limp over slightly reach them. Ryou had taken the blunt of an attack while riding on the back of one of his summons, but had landed on the ground at a funny angle. He brushed it off when Makoto asked him about it, saying that he would get someone to look at it later. "Julietta needs that specimen, and we all need to rest." Was his excuse, and Makoto nodded. He whistled to catch the rest of the Unit's attention, the sound echoing across the park. They all stopped chatting among one another, and turned to look at their leader. He would never get use to being the head of Unit 13, with all those eyes on him for guidance in such a bleak time like this after they had lost everything.

"We're going to head back to Nodens. We need to hand this specimen to Julietta before it is too late." A chorus of 'Yes, sir!' went around the group, and Ryou chuckled as Makoto ran a hand down his face. He dreaded them calling him sir, since he was barely older than the rest of them. With Ryou's arm slung over his shoulder, Makoto helped bring Ryou back to Nodens as Kaede rushed around to heal some of the other team member that still needed a bit of healing, and they all started their trek back to what they all had called 'home' for the past several months.


	2. End of the Road

p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"The walk back to Nodens Enterprises was just as tiring as the walk to the park. The whole team was exhausted, including Makoto himself. He and Kaede would switch off on who would carrying Ryou back, and when Ryou fell asleep against his back, Makoto just let him rest. Kaede walked beside him at the brisk pace he was setting for the group, a look of determination on her face. He looked over at her to ask how she was doing, and her ruby red eyes had deep, dark circles around them, and were bloodshot by all the crying she has done. He glanced back at the ground, and /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / "I'm sorry that it has come to this, Kaede." He said, and she shook her head. "It's no one's fault that this is how things turned out. Don't beat yourself up over it." She replied, and a small smile set on Makoto's face. Easier said than done, really. br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / Behind them, he could hear the rest of the Unit keeping up with them, and they all seemed to be trying to lighten the dismal air that had settled over the group shortly after ND's death. With ND's miasma gone, they could cross through Tokyo quickly to get back to Nodens without hassle, save for a few dragons that would pop up in the distance at times. Makoto would redirect them to a different route to avoid them, since no one was in the shape to fight anymore. They didn't need anymore deaths today, since most of the planet was now dead /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / Thankful that none of the dragons that were wandering around town were pursuing them, they finally reached Nodens. Makoto's arms hurt from carrying Ryou for so long, and Kaede stripped him off of Makoto's back. "Are we there...?" Ryou mumbled as Kaede held him bridal style, but had him shifted in a way that she could hold him closer to her for support. "Yes. Now I can get a better look at your leg." Makoto waved at them as they headed towards the room the three of them slept in, and the Lucier's part of the second and third team approached him, especially the ones from Atlantis' time. They told him that they were going to go see Eigur's and Ulania's bodies one more time, each with a sorrowful look on their face. The ones directly from Atlantis looked a little more upset over the ordeal, but they all shared the same pain of losing a leader and a great friend. Makoto nodded at them. "I'm sorry for your loss." He told them, and they waved him off, telling him to not blame himself. The last of the group, which were the three people from Eden, came up to Makoto last. They said they were going to go see Sailas and Brijilt's bodies, and to see that they were at peace. They, too, told Makoto it wasn't his fault that they died. br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / He was sick of hearing that by this point. As the groups went into the elevators to go to their destinations, Makoto took the stairs instead. He may of been tired, but he wasn't stupid. Getting to the RD floor wouldn't be too difficult. He was sure that he would make it with the energy he had left anyway, and he'd hopefully get to Julietta before he passed away due to Dragon /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / Julietta was gasping for air when Makoto had finally opened the door. "Where is the rest of the Unit?" Julietta spat out. "Paying their respects. A few are getting treated. The fight with ND took a major toll on most of them." Makoto replied, fidgeting with the specimen in his pocket. Julietta's face scrunched up in pain, before he let out a gasp after it subsided slightly. "I'm so sorry for putting you through this. I knew that Allie wanted to bind the Chronicle with you, but I didn't know that she was the 2supnd/sup True Dragon or that she was trying to create the 7supth/sup True Dragon." Julietta croaked out as he laid his eyes on Makoto, and Makoto gingerly held out the ND's specimen to him. br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / "None of us knew, Julietta. It isn't your fault." Makoto spoke, looking down at the specimen in his hand. He was a little beat up – his jacket had been cut into ribbons by ND's thorns and claws, and Yuma had managed to rip off the top seam off of the right sleeve of his jacket, which he had to /span/spanrip off before fighting ND. The ends of his scarf were now frayed, with a couple of tears in it as well. /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / Julietta chuckled as he looked at the specimen."I can't move anymore..." Julietta stated, and Makoto's eyes landed on where the rest of the specimens were laid on the console of the machine that Julietta was tinkering with before he arrived. Julietta, along with Dr. Nagumo, were trying to change it so that they had a fighting chance against VFD. Which... didn't make much sense to Makoto. The 7supth/sup True Dragon wasn't even 'born' yet, and they had changed the chronicle so that they would descend into a part between time and space to fight against the will of the universe. Makoto, a bit hesitant, placed the specimen down with the rest of them, and it made a small clicking sound as it fit into place. The screen before their eyes pinged at them. It was loading up the specimen with the rest of the data, and Makoto scanned over the code himself. br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / The thought of becoming the 7supth/sup True Dragon drifted back into his mind as he watched lines upon lines of coding rocket through the application that was scanning the specimen, and adding it to the Dragon's Chronicle. Allie did mention that becoming the 7supth/sup True Dragon would cause the universe to restart and maybe, just maybe, he could fix it all. He could become one with the 7supth/sup True Dragon and set things right by preventing all the unnecessary deaths and the destruction caused by the /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / However, she mentioned that all dragons may cease to exist after that point. Would he truly be willing to die to prevent the world from falling into ruins? As he mulled it over, he realized he would be willing to sacrifice himself to let the world live in peace. He'd just be content with letting his friends from the past, present, and future, live their lives in peace. One life for the chance of hundreds upon thousands more to survive? It was a fair enough trade in his mind. It's not like they didn't sign a contract stating that they might die fighting dragons anyway, so he had already accepted his fate early into their mission. br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / The computer dinged and a cough wracked through Julietta, snapping him from his thoughts. Julietta groaned once it had passed, and he looked over at Makoto. "Makoto, you need to get the rest of your team together and run this application." Looking up at the screen, Makoto saw that the application was asking if they wanted to run it now, and he glanced between the computer, the specimens, and then Julietta, who seemed to be growing annoyed that Makoto had made no effort to leave the room to get his team. "I don't have much time left, and I would like to see the start of you preventing this from happening." Julietta said irritably, and Makoto grinned at him. He had made up his mind. Reaching over Julietta and towards the keyboard, Julietta's eyes grew wide with shock. "What are you doing?" He asked quietly, and Makoto /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / "I'm going to fix this myself." Makoto stated as he canceled the application to run. The program sat idly in the background, and with a few nimble key strokes, he was able to pull up the coding for the Dragon Chronicle. He frowned in concentration as he worked on pulling out the new coding, and changing it back to the old one. Julietta watched with his eyes and mouth agape as Makoto rearranged the code back to its original state, now regretting showing him the coding last week when Makoto asked to see it to see how it worked. "Makoto, that's just going to cause what Allie wanted! You'll become the 7supth/sup True Dragon itself!" Julietta yelled, before another set of coughs wracked his body, spittle and blood coming from his mouth. Makoto saved the old coding over the new one, and opened up the dialogue box once more to run the application. "I know Julietta." He began sadly, and the door started to open, the rest of Unit 13 walking in. Kaede and Ryou were at the front, and came to a halt when they heard the argument between Julietta and Makoto. br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / "The hell is wrong with you Makoto!? You can't become one with the dragon itself – its will may overpower you!" Julietta pleaded with him desperately to not run the program, and Makoto shook his head, before looking over his unit with a sad smile on. Kaede's hands covered her mouth as tears ran down her cheeks, and Ryou was limping over as fast as he could, with his hands outstretched to stop Makoto from hitting the enter key. With a click of the button, the world came to a stop around him. Suddenly, it shifted as if he was dropped into the ocean; everyone began to sway back and forth, and he felt like he couldn't breath. A piercing pain ripped through his chest and he gasped in shock, and he heard a rough, guttural growl. Turning to face the sound, there was a dragon shaped shadow with a pair of violet colored eyes staring directly at him; the pupils were in slits, as a gaping maw full of sharp, shark like teeth snapped around his /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / Before darkness took over him, he heard a scream./span/span/p 


	3. Human?

p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"Makoto fell out of his bed and onto his side with a loud thud on the cold ground, his sheets twisted around his torso and legs in a funny manner, and he slapped his hands over his mouth. Breathing heavily into his palms, his eyes scanned the room in front of him. He was back in his room that he, Kaede, and Ryou stayed in at Nodens, and he let out a sigh of relief. Was that all just a dream? He sat up and rubbed at his face with his hands, trying to calm his nerves when the sound of someone shuffling over reached his side. The person bent down, and Makoto glanced up at them./p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Makoto! Are you alright?" It was Ryou, who sounded really concerned. Ryou looked down at him with blearily eyes. He must of gotten out of bed to make sure he was alright, and Makoto smiled, appreciating it. Ryou was always there for him when they were kids, and that hasn't changed in the ten years he's known him. "I'll..." Makoto said, his voice cracking. He cleared his throat, and looked at Ryou. "I'll be okay." Ryou sighed, and brushed his sandy colored hair out of his eyes. "If you say so. You screamed before you fell out of your bed. We're lucky you didn't wake Kaede up." Makoto looked back down at his hands, and Ryou held one out to help him back onto his feet. Reaching out to grab it, Ryou pulled him back onto his feet, and Makoto wobbled slightly before he plopped back into his bed. Ryou stretched his arms above his head and yawned. "I'm going to head back to my own bed." He stated, and began to tip toe back to his side, trying to not wake up Kaede, who slept in the bed at the end of the room. Makoto laid back down in his bed, adjusting his covers so that they weren't wrapped around him again, and stared at the ceiling. Light snoring from Ryou came from the bed beside him, and he heard Kaede roll over in her sleep. The bustling sounds of Tokyo nightlife filled his style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"He didn't sleep for the rest of the night. br /br / _br /br / /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;""Makoto! Are you just going to sleep the day away?" Nagamimi shouted through his transmissions device. Makoto groaned. He had fallen asleep sometime after the sun had rose, shortly after Kaede got up for her morning routine. "Get up! Allie wants to see you and your team before we continue on our dragon hunting mission today." With that, the transmission cut off, and Makoto shot up in bed. A mission? But wasn't he just standing over Julietta, pressing a key on his keyboard-br /br / /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"He shuddered as pain shot through his whole body, as if he was sliced open by the edge of a knife. He had restarted the universe. There shouldn't be any dragons on this planet.. Allie should have been dead. He should be dead as well. A fog seemed to rest in his head the more he thought about things, unyielding in leaving to help him understand any of the questions ran through his head. With a slight headache coming on, he gave up and pushed his covers off to the side to get himself out of his bed. He turned to look over his shoulder to see that neither Kaede nor Ryou were in their beds. Yawning into the palm of his hand, he walked over to their small kitchen area, and threw some sort of breakfast together, when Nagamimi blared at him through his watch once /br / /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;""Don't make me have to get one of down there to get you! You have to go protect the lower ward of Atlantis!" Shit. So they were going off to protect Ulania while she made the Dragon Slayer then. Rubbing at his eyes, he discarded his half eaten bowl of cereal into the sink, waddled back to his side of the room and into the dresser that he and Ryou shared. Pulling out some clothes, and grabbing his hygienic products off the top of the dresser, he rushed to the bathroom to get /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"When he got outside of the conference room a while later, Nagamimi was steaming. "What took you so long!" It shouted at him, bouncing up and down on its small feet. Running a hand through his already messy hair, Makoto sighed. "I'm exhausted. I'm sorry for being late." Nagamimi huffed at him. "You've got shit to do, so let's hurry this up. Get in there and see what they wants." Makoto stepped into the conference room, to see that Julietta and Allie were speaking to one another by her desk. Makoto beamed at Julietta, and was glad to see him alive and well. Kaede and Ryou were already there as well, and were sitting at the table in the middle of the room, chatting away. The door opened once more as Nagamimi made their way in, walking past Makoto and jumping up onto the round style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Morning sunshine! Did you sleep well?" Julietta singsonged. Allie glanced at Makoto, and the usual smile on her face became a tight knitted frown. Anger rose in him as he looked at her. He already knew what she was. He could take her out right here, right now, but that would cause more issues than they needed at this moment. Also, explaining himself as to why he took Allie down in cold blood would be harder than actually fighting her, so he gave her the best smile he could, and she returned the gesture. He looked back at style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br / /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;""I wish I did." He replied with a shrug as he walked up to the table to take a seat beside Ryou. Julietta hummed in thought. "I guess you're still getting use to hunting down dragons?" Makoto nodded, and Julietta chuckled. "Well, I'll try to go easy on you then~" He purred, and Makoto chuckled nervously. Next to running Unit 13, he would probably never use to Julietta's advances. It never really bothered him either, as it was always in a playful manner. It was just how he treated everyone anyway. br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Down to business!" Allie said cheerfully as she clapped her hands together, approaching the round table. The group was all together now, and the conversation between Kaede and Ryou came to a halt. "We're going to be heading to the lower ward of Atlantis to check on how the Dragon Slayer that Ulania is putting together is going. The ISDF members that are joining us have already gone through the portal there, and are waiting for us patiently." Allie stated, and with a push of a button, the screen behind her desk flickered onto a screen that showed Yuma, Yoritomo, and their small band of ISDF soldiers waiting in the lower ward of Atlantis. A rush of happiness went through Makoto to see that Yuma was back to his original self – possibly with only two True Dragons in him at that moment – and alive. "Don't forget that we are on a mission to hunt down and defeat the 4supth/sup True Dragon: Nyala. Take down any dragons that have crawled into the lower ward. The ISDF have been on top of it, but one may of snuck past." Julietta piped up, and Nagamimi let out a huff of irritation. "Alright alright, let's get going already before the ISDF get the specimen before we do." With that, he started to usher Kaede and Ryou outside. Julietta mentioned he was following them to check up on the Portal System, and Allie stayed behind. span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br /span/span/p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Wait just a moment.~" She spoke. They all stopped in their tracks, and turned to look at her. "I would like to speak to Makoto. Everyone else, please wait outside a moment." Fear went through him, and the rest of the group left without questioning anything. Ryou shrugged at him, and Kaede just gave him a small smile. The door clicked closed behind them as they left, and Makoto waited patiently by the doors for Allie to say something. Her heels clicked on the tiled flooring as she adjusted her legs into a more comfortable position, and then ushered for him to sit across from her. He trotted over, sitting directly across from her with is hands in his lap. Resting her elbows onto the table and her chin in the palm of her hands, Allie looked in his general direction. Makoto wasn't sure how she saw without her eyes open, but left it up to her being able to sense people. A few minutes passed as he watched her intently, and she giggled. /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""I know what you are, you know." She snickered, and Makoto swore he could see her eyes open a crack, the violets of her irises barely showing. "I don't get why you don't just consume these humans here and now, and move onto the next universe." She said coldly, the smile never leaving her face. Makoto shivered at her statement, before shaking his head. "I don't know what you're talking about." He lied as he got out of his seat, and rushed over to the door. /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"The sweet smell of her Dragonsbane filled his nose, and he saw one of the bright pink petals fly by his face, but as he looked over her shoulder at her once he opened the door, it was all gone. Allie just sat there, her regular smile on her face as she waved at them while they left. /p  
p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" /p 


	4. Silhouette

p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"Going through the portal still sucked in Makoto's opinion. It felt like it was ripping you apart and putting you back together each time you went through it, and it also left an odd sensation of pins and needles throughout the whole body once you got to your destination. He, Kaede, and Ryou were now located in the last remaining town of the lower ward in Atlantis, which was barren now, save for them and the ISDF. Everyone had been evacuated due to Nyala trying to crush through and destroy Atlantis. The waves splashing up against the rocks of the ward were typically soothing, but it was giving Makoto a headache. The strong sea breeze was stronger than he remembered, making him slightly nauseous. Ryou shot him a concerned look when he saw that he was turning an unhealthy shade of green. "Dude, please don't vomit. That'd ruin this moment." He said and Makoto let out a dry laugh. "I'll try not to."/p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"As they walked a bit from their spawn point, Makoto spotted the ISDF members waiting for them. They seemed to just be standing in formation, but Yoritomo looked a little pissed off that they were late. As they approached the ISDF members, Yoritomo let out a slight huff. "You're all a bit late. Why?" He asked, his arms crossed over his chest. Makoto groaned slightly. "I'm the reason. I didn't sleep much last night, and I overslept slightly. I'm sorry." He apologized, and a frown tugged at Yoritomo's lips. "Well. Don't hold us back then." He letcured, and gave orders to his troops, who all dispersed around the area to keep watch. Makoto's eyes landed on Yuma, who was staring back at him. He smiled and gave a small wave, and Yuma looked a bit surprised, before joining up with Yoritomo to keep an eye out for dragons. Makoto sighed. /p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"His watch vibrated for a moment, and he lifted it up to see Nagamimi pop up in a holographic state. "Are you going off to check on Ulania or not?" With that, the transmission cut out, Makoto turned to Kaede and Ryou, who still loved the sights of the lower ward with the gemstones that stuck out from the sides, and the water that rushed through it. This isn't their first time seeing it though, so their wonder over it should of waned by now. "Come on, let's head off to go see Ulania." He said, and together as a group, they headed towards the forge./p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"The walk there was uneventful. There wasn't a single monster even in sight as they walked along the jagged path, the crystals lighting their way. It was eerily silent as well, and when they were close to the entrance of the forge, the smell of blood hit Makoto like a truck. He leaned against the wall beside them, holding down the urge of gag. Kaede rushed over to him, Ryou in tow. "What's wrong Makoto?" She asked softly, and Ryou looked concerned. Makoto shook his head, and sucked in a breath. "We should hurry up. Something doesn't seem right." He urged, before they began to pick up the pace. As they got closer to the forge, the smell became more pungent and Makoto shuddered. Something was very, emvery/em wrong and the closer they got, the more the feeling gnawed at him. /p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"They rushed into the forge, to find it a bloody mess. The blacksmith and a guard that stayed behind to watch over Ulania were laying on the ground, broken and punctured with teeth marks. Ulania's body was slumped over the smithy, her body slightly mangled with large bite marks into her torso. Her blood poured over the unfinished Dragon Slayer; the sword now a dull shade of grey and not completed. The sound of something clacking its teeth together made Makoto wheel around, to find a dragon licking its chops clean of the blood. Blood stained its claws and its red tinted scales, and it eyed him, Kaede, and Ryou with a hungering gaze. Ryou took a step back, reading his deck for battle, while Kaede slipped on her brass knuckles, glaring at the dragon. /p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"Makoto, however, just stood and watched as the dragon trudged towards them, sniffing at the air. Usually, dragons just attacked them with wild abandon, but this one approached him, a bit wary and curious Kaede stood her guard and Ryou set up a trap around himself, both backing away as the dragon came closer and closer. This wasn't suppose to happen. This isn't what happens. /p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;""Makoto, what are you doing?!" Kaede yelled as the dragon stood barely a few feet from him. "It'll kill you without a second thought, now move!" The dragon stared down at him with its piercing yellow eyes, taking in his presence. Before he could pull his gun from its holster, a hopeful feeling tugged at him. He could retry, and make things right. Sounds around him slowly became muddled, as if he was submerged into water. He could hear Kaede screaming at him to move as the dragon's jaws opened up, the blood dripping down its chin, as it twisted its head to the side so it could snap him in half as it did Ulania. Before it could crunch down on him, a blinding light engulfed the area around him and he shut his eyes as he fell into an abyss./p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"As he fell, Makoto could hear clocks tick tocking around him. He opened his eyes, and saw his own memories circle around him, connected together in a line of photographs. Behind them was a backdrop of the sky as his memories flowed around him. Bits and pieces of when he, Kaede, and Ryou had taken down Nyala with several new members of their friends cheering them on. Another memory flickered in front of him of when he and Ryou were studying about the Dragon Calamity of 2021 in the reference room during the middle of the night, because neither of them could sleep. One of Kaede slugging him when she was teaching him hand to hand combat back when they first joined Nodens. Another of when he rushed into a fight to stop Kaede from taking a blow by an enemy. /p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"As Makoto fell deeper and deeper, the calmness he felt twisted into fear. The sky behind the a pair of his memories cracked, before shattering like glass in two spots directly above him. The fragments floated down towards him, the memories still playing on the pieces. Shielding himself from the glass, it faded out of existence as white Dragonsbane exploded from these holes, several of the flowers falling from the openings as whatever remained lined the gaps. A pair of violet eyes stared down at him, a malicious glint in them. It was the same dragon silhouette he saw when he had changed his fate back in Julietta's lab, and anxiety gripped him./p  
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p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"It was VFD. Makoto landed on his back with a yelp, the abyss finally ending. Groaning, he sat up, and glanced upwards to see that his memories were still twirling around him, faster than before. His eyes could barely keep up with them as they moved, and something colliding with the walls of his memories shook the area he was standing in, but didn't puncture it. VFD roared before it reared up to collide into the wall once more, and Makoto felt the ground beneath his feet disappear as he fell down into the abyss again. A splitting headache clouded his senses as the ticking of the clocks stopped, and a bell chimed style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: medium;"br /span/span/p  
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